Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony, on Friday confirmed that COVID-19 vaccination among Guyana’s younger population, between the ages of 18 and 40, remains the lowest.
He made the disclosure as he provided statistics on the vaccination campaign in Guyana during his daily COVID-19 update.
Dr Anthony said when the statistics are broken down by age, it is proven that vaccination is highest among the older population. To date, health officials have been able to vaccinate 66.2% of persons 60 years and above, while 33.7% of persons between the ages of 40 – 59 have been vaccinated.
That figure drops when it comes to persons between the ages of 18 and 39 with just 27.2% of persons in this age group vaccinated. Just about half of Guyana’s population is said to be between this age group.
Dr. Anthony said it is important that persons in this age group, 18 – 39 years old, take their vaccines because recent infection and death figures show that younger people are becoming sick with the virus.
Dr Anthony said it means that the most vulnerable is now the least vaccinated.
“It’s important to immunise this age group and I want to appeal for younger persons, people between 18 and 40, to come forward and get vaccinated,” Dr Anthony said.
As of Thursday, May 20, 2021, a total of 177,649 people received the first dose of one of the three vaccines Guyana is currently administering – AstraZeneca, Sinopharm and Sputnik V.
That amounts to 36.5% of the country’s adult population, while just about 47,504 people received their second dose. This means that just about 9.8% of the country’s adult population is now fully immunised.
Meanwhile, looking at the regional breakdown for vaccination, Dr Anthony said Region 10 continues to lag behind as the region with the lowest vaccination uptake.
Dr Anthony said while there has been a marginal increase in the region with regards to vaccination, more needs to be done. The statistics show that just about 11% of the population in Region 10 is now vaccinated.
“We continue to ask persons who have influence in the community to advocate so people can go out and get vaccines,” the Health Minister said.
There are more than 140 active COVID-19 cases in Region 10.
Meanwhile, the other regions are doing well with Region Six (East-Berbice-Corentyne) coming out on top with 43.6% of the population there being vaccinated.
Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), where half of the country’s population lives, has a vaccination uptake of 36.8%.
The other regions have recorded vaccination uptake between 30 and 40 per cent with the exception of Region Eight where 23 % of the population there is now vaccinated.
